Comcast in December 2009 struck a deal to buy a 51% stake in NBC Universal. This came shortly after General Electric Co., 80% owner of NBC Universal, agreed to buy the 20% stake in NBC Universal held by France’s Vivendi.

Comcast completed its acquisition of the 51% stake on Jan. 28, 2011, allowing Comcast to consolidate NBC Universal’s financials with Comcast’s financials. At that time, NBC Universal changed its legal name to NBCUniversal Media LLC, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of NBCUniversal Holdings. Comcast controls and owns 51% of NBCUniversal Holdings; GE owns the remaining 49%.

As a result of the NBC Universal deal, Comcast in 2011 restaged itself into five reportable business segments: Cable Communications, Cable Networks, Broadcast Television, Filmed Entertainment and Theme Parks.

Comcast also contributed two websites - DailyCandy and Fandango - to NBC Universal in January 2011.

DailyCandy, acquired by Comcast in 2008, is a website devoted to style, food and fashion. Fandango, acquired by Comcast in 2007, is a website that sells tickets to movie theaters and offers video content. NBC’s other digital ventures include iVillage, a women's content site launched in 1995 and bought by NBC Universal in 2006. Ad Age includes revenue for these digital ventures in Ad Age’s cable-networks revenue estimate.

NBC Universal’s Filmed Entertainment segment consists of the operations of Universal Pictures, which produces filmed entertainment in various media formats for theatrical, home entertainment, television and other distribution platforms.

The Theme Parks segment includes the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park near Los Angeles and Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Fla.

NBC Universal effective July 1, 2011, paid $1.025 billion to buy the 50% interest held in the Florida parks from buyout firm Blackstone Group, which had purchased the stake in 2000 from Rank Group. NBC Universal now owns 100% of the Florida venture.

NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke said in a June 2011 statement: "The [Florida] acquisition consolidates our ownership and confirms our long-term commitment to Universal Orlando and the theme park business. Universal Orlando is a consistent and significant driver of operating and free cash flow and is performing extremely well. It has a superb management team and exciting growth opportunities. This purchase of the Blackstone interest is attractively valued and represents strong financial returns for NBC Universal."

NBC Universal gets licensing fees and other revenue from third parties that own and operate Universal Studios theme parks in Japan and Singapore.

As of Dec. 31, 2010, Comcast cable systems served approximately 22.8 million video customers, 17.0 million high-speed internet customers and 8.6 million phone customers and passed 51.9 million homes and businesses in 39 states and the District of Columbia.

As of Dec. 31, 2009, Comcast cable systems served about 23.6 million video customers, 15.9 million high-speed internet customers and 7.6 million phone customers in 39 states and the District of Columbia.

The International Olympic Committee in June 2011 awarded NBC Universal the U.S. media rights to the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games and 2020 Summer Olympic Games for $4.38 billion, extending NBC's Olympic run.

NBC Universal's previous broadcast contract was set to end after the 2012 London Summer Olympics, NBC's 13th Olympic Games broadcast and seventh consecutive Olympics broadcast.

At the conclusion of the 2020 Summer Olympics, NBC will have broadcast 17 Olympic Games, including 11 consecutive Olympics Games.

Comcast displaced Time Warner as the nation’s largest media company after Time Warner completed its spinoff of Time Warner Cable in March 2009. Time Warner had held the top spot in Advertising Age’s 100 Leading Media Companies report since 1995.

Walt Disney Co. in November 2006 sold Disney’s 39.5% interest in E! to Comcast for $1.23 billion, giving Comcast full ownership of the cable channel.

Comcast in 2005 bought a stake in movie distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. As of November 2010, Comcast had a 21% equity stake. MGM, burdened by debt, filed for bankruptcy reorganization in November 2010. Comcast’s stake was wiped out in bankruptcy. MGM emerged from bankruptcy in December 2010 under new ownership.

Comcast was founded in 1963.

Comcast, GE and NBC have historical connections. In 1919, GE led a consortium, consisting of GE, American Telephone & Telegraph Co., Westinghouse and United Fruit (an early investor in radio technology), to form a radio manufacturer, Radio Corporation of America.

In 1926, RCA began to build a network of radio stations, delivering content to affiliates over AT&T long-distance lines. To avoid antitrust issues, AT&T sold New York station WEAF to RCA and dropped out of the RCA owners consortium.

RCA formed National Broadcasting Co. (50% owned by RCA, 30% by GE, 20% by Westinghouse) to serve affiliates of WEAF (now WFAN-AM, owned by CBS Corp.), over Red Network, and WJZ (now WABC-AM, owned by Cumulus Media), over Blue Network.

In 1930, the Justice Department brought antitrust action against RCA, GE and Westinghouse. Under a consent decree in 1932, GE and Westinghouse agreed to sell their stakes in RCA.

To resolve antitrust issues, RCA in 1943 sold Blue Network, which became American Broadcasting Co. (Disney in 1996 bought Capital Cities/ABC, bringing ABC into the Disney fold. Disney spun off the ABC radio network and radio stations in 2007 to Citadel Broadcasting Corp., which was acquired by Cumulus Media in 2011.)

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